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Alberta Communities Not Benefitting From Oil Sands Revenues

Posted by: Michael Dudley

17 January 2007 - 8:00am

Alberta's inability to provide the necessary municipal and social infrastructure to keep pace with oil sand developments is beginning to make life in the north "intolerable."

"The population of Fort McMurray has doubled in nine years and...there is a shortfall of nearly 3,000 homes, 17 police officers and two public schools. Housing prices are outrageous, (the average house is now over $500,000), there are half as many doctors as are needed, and the lifestyle has become, in the words of one 14 year resident, 'intolerable.'

The assault rate is nearly twice the provincial average; its drug offences are triple. Population continues to grow at about 10 per cent a year. The city needs a new water treatment plant, police station, recreation centre and fire hall.

In order to meet the growing infrastructure needs of the communities that service the oil sands there needs to be some investment from the people making money off the oil sands.

What has the government of Alberta been doing to lead during this issue? According to a growing number of people: nothing."

Full Story: Alberta's Monstrosity Needs Help
Source: Rabble, January 11, 2007
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But why not just require basic accessibility, such as no-step entrances and wider doorways? It seems off the mark to argue that it's inappropriate to place this kind of requirement on homebuilders.
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